Fresno Pregnancy Medical Clinic & Services Abortion Alternativeshttp://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:53:49 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.10The Word for LIFEhttp://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/word-life/
Thu, 05 Feb 2015 23:42:52 +0000http://ministry.pregnancycarecenter.com/?p=1297$5.99 each Each day, 3,300 wake up in America believing abortion is the only solution to an unplanned pregnancy. In the wake of this tragic decision, a human life is ended, and a woman’s life is changed forever. We support one woman at a time, sparing her and her unborn child the anguish of abortion. Pregnancy Care Center offers free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parenting classes, material assistance, and other services […]

Each day, 3,300 wake up in America believing abortion is the only solution to an unplanned pregnancy. In the wake of this tragic decision, a human life is ended, and a woman’s life is changed forever. We support one woman at a time, sparing her and her unborn child the anguish of abortion. Pregnancy Care Center offers free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parenting classes, material assistance, and other services to empower women.

The Beautiful Everyday Bible allows us to share compassion and faith with clients in crisis by equipping client advocates at PCC with free Bibles for the women to whom they minister. You may donate them to Pregnancy Care Center—and change two lives, forever!

At Pregnancy Care Center we give free bibles to clients that show an interest in knowing Jesus. We mark each bible with significant scriptures that will guide clients to the truth of walking with Him.

]]>Christmas Blessings!http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/christmas-blessings/
Wed, 24 Dec 2014 00:00:03 +0000http://ministry.pregnancycarecenter.com/?p=1268 Christ’s birth and His life are critical to our understanding the value of life and also the ministry of Pregnancy Care Center. JESUS, the Son of God, was immaculately conceived in a young woman’s womb, not yet married to her betrothed. This would be to the world “a crisis pregnancy,” yet very necessary for a virgin birth. Imagine young Mary’s concern for her reputation and the feelings of shame […]

]]> Christ’s birth and His life are critical to our understanding the value of life and also the ministry of Pregnancy Care Center.JESUS, the Son of God, was immaculately conceived in a young woman’s womb, not yet married to her betrothed.This would be to the world “a crisis pregnancy,” yet very necessary for a virgin birth.Imagine young Mary’s concern for her reputation and the feelings of shame her culture placed on her.Imagine her rejecting these feelings again and again, since she knew exactly who she was according to Luke 1:26 “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Don’t you think there were those in her life that did not believe her story of purity and tried to convince her to “just fix this thing – no one needs to know”? How many times did the father of all lies twist and turn things and assault young Mary trying to rid her of the Christ Child, The Messiah, that would bring Life to all of humanity.Can you just imagine??How many times did sweet, pure Mary find herself in tears and on her knees begging for the strength and support to continue?

Luke 2 tells us of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth and verse 42 tells of us Elizabeth’s response to Mary’s news, “In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” Finally someone who gets it!!Mary must have wept with relief that there was finally someone who would love and support her through this “crisis and unexpected” pregnancy.I encourage you to read Mary’s Song that follows Elizabeth’s greeting in Luke 2:46-55.Mary expresses in her song what we must do in times of distress, and that is to recount all the ways our God is faithful and remind ourselves that He is just and we are never alone.

I am sure you see the many parallels of Christ’s birth and the ministry of Pregnancy Care Center.While those coming into PCC are not virgins carrying the Messiah, they are, none the less, valued by their creator and carrying Life in the very image of God!!“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”Genesis 1:27.Evil wants to destroy all life that resembles our God and do it quickly. The women whom we serve are being assaulted in various ways to rid themselves of the Life they carry, but often times they do not know their God or the value they have in HIM.

Your prayers and gifts allow us to be “Elizabeth” to the women who cross our threshold.PCC is the safe place of love and support where someone “gets it,” and exclaims “Blessed are you and blessed is the life you carry!!” Thank you for exclaiming this truth with us.

May the God of Grace bless you with His Presence this Christmas season!!

]]>SHE is loved!!http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/1197/
Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:09:38 +0000http://ministry.pregnancycarecenter.com/?p=1197It was after hours and the Just 4 Dad’s class was meeting in the Pregnancy Care Center classroom. I was sitting at my desk checking emails when I heard our front door open. I looked up to see a young girl with dark hair and a backpack slung over one shoulder, about 15 years of age, walk into our waiting room. As I got up to greet her at the […]

It was after hours and the Just 4 Dad’s class was meeting in the Pregnancy Care Center classroom. I was sitting at my desk checking emails when I heard our front door open. I looked up to see a young girl with dark hair and a backpack slung over one shoulder, about 15 years of age, walk into our waiting room. As I got up to greet her at the front counter I noticed a hospital ID band around her wrist. She asked, “Are you closed already?” I confirmed we were but smiled as I asked how I could help her. She needed a pregnancy test and wanted to know if I could recommend a doctor. She quickly looked away each time our eyes met, yet otherwise she carried herself confidently. I shared with her that our services are always free and we could indeed offer her a pregnancy test the next day during office hours. I handed her a brochure with our phone number to make an appointment and our locations as I asked if she lived close by. She replied, “I live a few different places.” My heart sank as I understood that this young beautiful girl was on the streets, obviously alone and scared, and worried about pregnancy.

SHE is just one of many. Since January 1st of this year we have provided 2067 pregnancy tests for our clients. Numerous women experiencing an unexpected pregnancy are alone, scared and worried about their future. They all have a choice to make. Yes, I used the word “choice”. You see, every woman (or couple) has one of three choices to make for each pregnancy that occurs, parenting, making an adoption plan, or termination. The right to choose is the right to know and understand the choice. It is our call to provide pregnancy option counseling and educate women before decisions are made that cannot be undone…before decisions are made that bring about regret, depression, grief and shame.

By the age of 45 one-third of women in the United States will have had an abortion. The effect on them is life-changing. Does ending a pregnancy erase a pregnancy, or rather, change the outcome? Many women make the choice to terminate without understanding, without thinking it through, without believing they have options. Many make the choice without taking a breath between a positive pregnancy test and termination. Pregnancy Care Center offers her a place to take that breath.

I sat at my desk after SHE left and I prayed for her. I thought about who she might be. Were her parents sleepless at night wondering about her whereabouts? Was she running or hiding from abusive situations? Who was this young girl? Then I remembered…SHE is God’s creation, created in the very image of her Creator. SHE is valuable…so very valuable that God knit her together in her mother’s womb and ordained her days before even one of them came to be. God’s thoughts for her are as numerous as the grains of sand. SHE is loved!! And, SHE is every client who walks through our door.

She, along with every client experiencing an unexpected pregnancy, needs compassionate care, options and support. What they need even more is someone to see them… Really SEE them, as God SEES them. As one deeply loved, created in the image of God, and for relationship with God. As someone who God has plans for to prosper and not harm but give hope and a future. When we value her as God’s child and share with her God’s love and truth, she can then begin to hold those same life-changing, life-saving thoughts for her own unborn child.

God’s unconditional love and value for her is why Pregnancy Care Center exists.

]]>He Heals a Broken Hearthttp://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/heals-broken-heart/
Thu, 16 Oct 2014 21:42:40 +0000http://ministry.pregnancycarecenter.com/?p=1188A client came in broken hearted due to a previous miscarriage. She was nervous about being pregnant again. Her client advocate was able to share with her the hope and spiritual healing that only God can bring. Her advocate assured her that there was nothing she had done to cause the miscarriage. She shared that she could begin to let go, and let God’s healing begin. She found out her […]

]]>A client came in broken hearted due to a previous miscarriage. She was nervous about being pregnant again. Her client advocate was able to share with her the hope and spiritual healing that only God can bring. Her advocate assured her that there was nothing she had done to cause the miscarriage. She shared that she could begin to let go, and let God’s healing begin. She found out her test was positive and is now learning to trust God in seeing her through this new pregnancy. The client and client advocate prayed together. She said she felt much better and had God’s peace. The client advocate witnessed an awesome transformation from fear to hope.

]]>April Flowers . . .http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/april-flowers/
Tue, 08 Apr 2014 21:40:45 +0000http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/?p=1149by Jesseca Ford (PASS Coordinator) I love that April has been named Abortion Recovery Month. Not just because it gives the recovery a marker to hold on to but because April is about hope for life in bloom. Women who have had an abortion are in such turmoil and heartache. Even those women who do not view their abortion(s) as a mistake are still so deeply affected by their choice. […]

I love that April has been named Abortion Recovery Month. Not just because it gives the recovery a marker to hold on to but because April is about hope for life in bloom. Women who have had an abortion are in such turmoil and heartache. Even those women who do not view their abortion(s) as a mistake are still so deeply affected by their choice. Through my time as PASS Coordinator I’ve seen many types of women come to the Bible studies: Some afraid to hope, some afraid to speak up because they feel to ashamed to lift their heads. As the weeks go by their hearts begin to heal and the shame, heartache, pain and guilt melt away. In the place of all the darkness that is being lifted, hope, grace, mercy come in. Healing overflows the women’s heart as God’s love blossoms within them.

God’s desire is for all of us to know His love and mercy. We as a community have the opportunity to reach out to the broken post abortive women and help them through their healing process. Each woman’s healing journey is different just like God has created us differently. I greatly encourage you to pray for the women you know who are post abortive and educate yourself on how to help her along in the process of healing. This path she will take, it will not be easy for her and she will need you as a fellow believer to pray for her, encourage her in her healing. Just like the flowers need good soil, water and care to grow into something so beautiful so a woman’s heart needs the same care to become who God has created her to be.

]]>Life is beautiful; life is precious.http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/life-is-beautiful-life-is-precious/
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 23:07:38 +0000http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/?p=1109Oh, we admire life’s beauty. We see it in morning rains. We hear it in the cooing of mourning doves. We see it in the magnificent Grand Canyon or the delicate Eiffel Tower. We feel it in the kiss of sunshine and even in our morning coffee. We sense it in the humbling expanse of the ocean and the limitless bounds of the universe. We want to travel to Venice […]

Oh, we admire life’s beauty. We see it in morning rains. We hear it in the cooing of mourning doves. We see it in the magnificent Grand Canyon or the delicate Eiffel Tower. We feel it in the kiss of sunshine and even in our morning coffee. We sense it in the humbling expanse of the ocean and the limitless bounds of the universe. We want to travel to Venice and hold hands and rest our child on our breast and watch the sunset and wiggle our toes in beachy sands. Even in our darkest points in history, we see the human soul always struggling upward, toward the sun, toward the Son. We have this zeal and longing and love for LIFE. Daily we see it’s beauty, in the magnificent and in the minute, and even in the grotesque. But do we see it where it is unseen? Or rather, do we hope for it’s beauty, do we have faith in it’s dearness where they eye cannot penetrate? Is it still precious to us, even then?

I recently saw images of a fetus, a “little one,” that had been miscarried at 12 weeks. They were actual photographs not computer renderings based on ultrasounds. I saw it. I saw the tiny rib cage, protecting miniature lungs and a young heart. I saw the eyes, which has it’s hundreds of thousands of nerves straining to connect. There were hands and feet with miniscule carpals and metacarpals, with a thumb still clutched up to the mouth, as if to suck, preparing for… what would not ultimately come. It was an absolute wonder held in the palm of the hand. The delicacy, the beauty, the perfection of it all! How different it seems now, lacking breath, from that same wonder we celebrate with balloons and streamers and chocolate covered strawberries and couscous salad. Suddenly, all the baby showers I’ve been to seem a disappointing and paltry celebration for the greatest, and most inexplicable miracle: the soul wrapped in flesh. So do we see the beauty? Do we see how precious? This little one has an intrinsic, inalienable value, that requires no justification nor defense.

And then I wonder, as God holds in His palm the ever-expanding universe is that not an allegory for this tiny fetus in the palm of his mother’s hand: her whole world collapsed into this one tiny frame… While this one tiny frame carries the imprint, the seal, the imago of the Infinite One!

]]>STRENGTH and The PCC Banquethttp://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/strength-and-the-pcc-banquet/
http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/strength-and-the-pcc-banquet/#respondFri, 21 Feb 2014 21:24:22 +0000http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/?p=877Each year we decide on a new theme, which includes a new verse and a new image and design. As we were deciding what should follow 2013’s “Believe,” almost universally STRENGTH came to mind. As we’ve recently launched our new men’s program and as we look into the future in general, we are striving for a strong culture, a strong ministry, and strong families. I was reflecting on this theme […]

]]>Each year we decide on a new theme, which includes a new verse and a new image and design. As we were deciding what should follow 2013’s “Believe,” almost universally STRENGTH came to mind. As we’ve recently launched our new men’s program and as we look into the future in general, we are striving for a strong culture, a strong ministry, and strong families.

I was reflecting on this theme as I considered our banquet fundraiser, which is coming up on March 18th, and how this thread seems supernaturally to make itself known in each area. We booked Gianna Jessen as our speaker long before we considered the 2014 theme. As you may know, Gianna Jessen is actually an abortion survivor. But she has gone on to do more than you might expect: a singer and songwriter, as well as public speaker who shares about her experiences, and perhaps most impressive, a marathoner!

Even now it is becoming all clear. On the one hand, who would think that Gianna Jessen could represent strength? But on the other hand, who could be stronger than one who, even before birth, survived an attempt upon her life? It is just like our Lord who puts wisdom into the mouths of babes and who uses the weak things of this world to shame the strong. These are seeming paradoxes that ultimately reveal the deeper truth: God is most glorified in our weaknesses.

]]>http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/strength-and-the-pcc-banquet/feed/0A Valentine’s Posthttp://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/a-valentines-post/
http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/a-valentines-post/#respondFri, 14 Feb 2014 19:32:46 +0000http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/?p=988We want wrap ourselves up in this word, and for all that it seems a blanket too small. We seek to clothe ourselves in it, yet feel exposed. We try to warm ourselves by its fire, but leave chilled. Like the medieval hunt for the hart, it always seems just beyond our horizon in the disappearing point. Can we pull it from moonbeams? Is it ordered in the stars? Is it carved in youth’s […]

We want wrap ourselves up in this word, and for all that it seems a blanket too small. We seek to clothe ourselves in it, yet feel exposed. We try to warm ourselves by its fire, but leave chilled. Like the medieval hunt for the hart, it always seems just beyond our horizon in the disappearing point. Can we pull it from moonbeams? Is it ordered in the stars? Is it carved in youth’s fancy, on tree bark, or into our skin, or born into our minds? Is it pressed into coal, clear and coruscating? We try nostalgia, lover, parent, roses, morning dew, promises, rubies and rings and find them all wanting. We want, we want; we try to pluck it from our own hearts, from films and books and scores and poems with a desperate grasping; we drag it from our lovers’ mouths and from our friends’ embraces.

And yet, and yet, so perfectly offered on the cross, in totality, whole and complete, lacking all wagers and demands, freely given, this rich, rich gift, dearly bought.

Many of the women who come to our doors have embraced a counterfeit love, a barbed lie, a bated hook. We still fight this battle that women must justify their loveable-ness, their quality, their value. How I wish to share with her this undying love, this unchanging love, this un-breaking love, that truly comforts, that truly clothes in strength and in dignity, that truly warms, that does not expire or exhaust, that comes in still small whispers, that is the mightiest in the mightiest, who seeing us dirty, and naked, and abandoned, He covers us with His wing, anoints us with oil, adorns us in gold and in silk.

And we, and we, knowing this, can we love Him less? Does your heart not burst in joy and in sorrow, to be loved so greatly, that loving us cost Him so great a price? Do we not tremble in His presence, not understanding, but perceiving His great love for us? This agape that burns us free from our loneliness and toil, suffering and hate is the only way to be wrapped up in light and in fire and in smoke and in Holy Ghost and in LOVE.

]]>http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/a-valentines-post/feed/0God's Gifthttp://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/gods-gift/
http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/gods-gift/#respondWed, 05 Feb 2014 20:34:58 +0000http://www.pregnancycarecenter.com/ministry/?p=811There are many people who pass through our doors, and although we seek to love them all, the faces do blend as the months pass. Girls, women, mothers, daughters, friends come to the Pregnancy Care Center, each with her own story and experiences, each with her own hopes and fears. We are just one small part of her life. With the pregnancy, we usually only hear the beginning of the […]

]]>There are many people who pass through our doors, and although we seek to love them all, the faces do blend as the months pass. Girls, women, mothers, daughters, friends come to the Pregnancy Care Center, each with her own story and experiences, each with her own hopes and fears. We are just one small part of her life. With the pregnancy, we usually only hear the beginning of the story. The rest is yet to be told. Maybe we will hear it; maybe we won’t. In the midst of this flurry of faces and stories, dreams and anxieties, there is one that stands out to me more than any other. I had a brief conversation with this mom over our front counter as she came to show us her beautiful baby girl. I had just started working at the Pregnancy Care Center, so was not here for her pregnancy test or ultrasound, but the story she told me I will never forget

This client was an immigrant. She came with a friend who translated for her, because she doesn’t speak English. When she first came to the United States, it was determined that due to her circumstances her children should be taken from her. Not understanding what the social workers were asking of her, she signed their papers and lost her two children. When she became pregnant again, she feared the same outcome and determined to have an abortion. She came through our doors, and after understanding the support our center offered, she decided to keep her baby, knowing now someone would be her advocate. Her fear almost prevented her from having the joy of a daughter she desperately wanted to keep; Pregnancy Care Center offered her the support to strengthen her so she could make the decision that was always in heart: to have a baby to love.

As we were hearing her friend translate bit by bit this story, she finally told us that the name she gave her daughter means “God’s Gift.” Hearing about her tragedy, I can only imagine how much more rarified, refined, precious this gift must have been to her who has lost so much.

Although I often think of this woman, her story came to mind more clearly and more potently to me because I recently watched the documentary, It’s a Girl, about gendercide. I cannot help but see the contrast between the perspectives on the birth of this baby girl: a gift not a curse; the memories you had lost returned to you, instead of fear of poverty; love and joy rather than abuse and suffering. This is why the work of Pregnancy Care Center is so important. We are here to lift up women, offer them strength, options, a future, and hope. We are, one by one, in a small but personal way, turning back the tide of inequality, of prejudice, of suffering, of loneliness, of abandonment, of abuse. Sometimes we forget how dark, how cruel, how unkind this world can be. I think of Matthew Arnold’s poem, “Dover Beach,” which says, “We are alone as on a darkling plain / Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,” but at Pregnancy Care Center we seek to be a place of light, of hope, of comfort, and of STRENGTH.